No money to start a business? No problem!

One of the most common excuses for people saying they can’t start a business (apart from time) is that they don’t have the money. However, these days, it is actually quite simple to start your business without money. Yes, it will take a bit of extra time due to lack of marketing. But if you persist with the right method, anyone can make anything work.

Looking at businesses that are low cost in start up fees usually means having an online only presence and no physical stock. Amazon has allowed for that to happen! People have built 6, even 7 figure businesses with little investment in the beginning. I believe we all need that side income that can top up our main income but people just don’t start because they believe they need x amount of time or money. But you do have time, time you spend socialising, time you spend on Facebook or doing other things that aren’t really that important. Everyone can make time for things they want to make time for. As for money, we will look at lowering the costs of every part of your new business.

Pick a low cost business modelThis goes without saying, if you have no money you can’t try and open a Mcdonald’s franchise or start up your own gym. A low cost business model could be something like an Amazon account that you use to sell products. This is a great business model because Amazon will hold your stock and do all the delivery/packaging for you for a percentage of your earnings.

An even better alternative is to look to your own strengths and see if someone will pay you to pass on your knowledge, consulting for example is big business. It may be better to get some sort of certification before you head out to big companies or SME’s but it will definitely be money well spent. By making a simple website and starting a blog (which you will push out through your social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn) you can see who is engaging with your knowledge and use that as a springboard for your sales funnel.

If you can, start it as a part time side businessIt is very difficult to do some businesses part time as the time you spend at work is usually the only time you can meet your clients. If you absolutely must have a steady stream of cash when you are setting up then starting your business on the side takes out the stress of knowing where this months rent is coming from.

There are also a lot of ways to get around not being available during the day for your business, there are a lot of VA’s (virtual assistants) that can act as your PA for small monthly costs or some of them actually work off each call answered etc. We live in the world where everything needs to be fast, quick interchanging of information and so on, so most communication can be done via email where you can respond straight away anyway.

Pick something you have in depth knowledge of and loveThis is a great way to save on hiring people to do things you are not quite sure of, an SME usually doesn’t require lots of different skills. This is not the case when you start scaling your business but hopefully by then you will have a steady stream of clients/income and you will be able to hire people with the skills you need.

Network, Network, NetworkThere will be plenty of local networking groups that will have a whole host of different SME’s attending, some bigger businesses will go down to. The important thing to remember is not that you only have the people in the room, what you want is a foot into their contacts and clients. That is how networking really works and having that mindset will allow you to see just how valuable it really is. There are plenty of free ones out there with some charging a set fee per event or monthly membership fees.

You shouldn’t just network with people you don’t know, tell anyone and everyone you do know, someone will always know someone who can be a potential client. The important thing is to remember you want a foot into their contacts. A referral is by far the best way to get new business.

Get a trusted partner on boardThis can be so important in the beginning, if your partner can see the vision and wants to be a part of it you can bring them on board and then there will be two of you working on the business. That means you can split the workload, costs, stress. It will make such a big difference, as the saying goes “two heads are better than one.” This is always the case regardless of your level of expertise as you have someone to bounce ideas off of, someone who thinks differently and can come up with different solutions to complex problems.

Start a blog and make use of free advertisingFree advertising is whatever you make of it, social media is a great way to get your content out there for free. If it is good content it will get shared and people will start engaging and that is what you want. They are essentially marketing for you, of course you can pay for social media advertising too but the key is to try and get as much organic traffic as possible. The best way to do that is to make it great content, stuff people like to read with pictures. Visual content in your blogs is so important because it is what draws the readers in.

If you can write content that helps people solve problems or talk about things that are trending, this will be a great way to get people to your website. The things you need to be careful on are the usual; commenting on your political stance or something that has got a huge divide in terms of opinion. It will get you hated by a large number as well as loved by a large number. Try to remain neutral!

Work, work, workWhen working against the odds, you need to work twice/three times as hard. That means if so and so is putting in a 40 hour work weeks you really need to do 80 -100. This is very difficult when managing a family or having a busy work schedule etc. Everything will be against you when you are starting out, one thing that is dependable on you and only you is your work ethic. If you work hard, you will be rewarded, it may not be straight away but work ethic always shines through.

Do you have any money saving tips for new or would-be entrepreneurs? If so let us know in the comment section below! GSY